New – Google Analytics on Library Web Site December 19, 2008
Posted by Debra in : Duke researchers, Librarians, Life in the library , 2commentsBeginning January 19, 2009 the Duke University Libraries will use Google Analytics to gather statistics on portions of its web site. The Libraries will use the information gathered to improve web services for its patrons. Google Analytics employs cookies to define user sessions , which allows for the collection of important data about how our patrons are using the Library’s site. Google Analytics uses only first-party cookies for data analysis. This means that the cookies are linked to the Libraries’ website domain(s), and Google Analytics will only use that cookie data for statistical analysis related to your browsing behavior on the Libraries’ websites According to Google, the data collected cannot be altered or retrieved by services from other domains. If you choose, you can opt out by turning off cookies in the preferences settings in your browser. For more information on Google Analytics, please visit Google’s web site.
How to find a human December 19, 2008
Posted by Michael in : Cool tools , add a comment
We’ve probably all experienced the frustration of automated telephone systems. Your needs are never included on the menu. You feel like you have a quick question that could be solved in 30 seconds if you could just talk to a real person. Or that sinking feeling when you realize you’ve heard this menu before. And let’s not forget the feeling of foolishness associated with giving canned voice commands to a computer. Shouted expletives generally aren’t understood by these calm-voiced operators.
There is, however, a resource for getting to human operators. In 2005, Paul English created the gethuman database, which has a listing of companies and services from insurance to hardware. For each phone service, there is a list of instructions for what to do to get out of the automated menus.
In addition to this original database, there is get2human.com, which is “more actively maintained” than the original site, but which has some obvious design differences.
Writing this post made me think about how interacting with companies like those listed in the gethuman site differs from the interactions that users have with libraries at Duke and elsewhere. Duke Libraries has expanded its service points from face-to-face contact to include phone, email, IM chat and now text messaging (click here to see all the ways to contact reference staff). But regardless of the method of communication, you’ll always reach an actual person who is trained and eager to help answer your questions. We hope this service enhances your work and keeps your blood pressure low.
Zoetrope: Browse the pages of Internet past December 11, 2008
Posted by Michael in : Cool tools, Research Help, Tips for students , 1 comment so far
**This tool is not yet ready for public use, but it seems to offer a lot of promise, so we’re sharing it with you now.**
Adobe Systems, working with researchers at the University of Washington, has just debuted Zoetrope, a new tool which we hope can illuminate the past of the Web. Web sites and pages within those sites change so quickly that the past is easily forgotten. It can be very interesting to look back at changes in layout and content and to track trends.
We wrote about the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine as a way to look at selected snapshots of Web pages in the past. The Wayback Machine has saved a huge quantity of data and is a unique tool for preserving the Web of the past. Zoetrope adds the ability to track changes by creating tools for easily browsing past Web pages. Users could use a slider to move back and forward in time. As displayed in the video, you could also create a “lens” to track a specific piece of information like the price of gasoline and compare it to the price of oil over time.
During the current testing phase, Zoetrope creators chose 1,000 websites that update frequently and stored information captured every hour over four months. While this is much more limited than what the Internet Archive is saving, the Internet Archive has expressed an interest in sharing its data. Maybe soon we’ll be able to use the Zoetrope tools to browse and analyze the vast data of the Internet Archive.
The video best displays the cool features of Zoetrope. Take a look and comment on some of its possible applications for personal or research use.
Latinobarómetro December 3, 2008
Posted by Nathaniel in : Duke researchers, Featured Database , add a comment
The Latinobarómetro is an annual study of public opinion in eighteen Latin American countries.
Latinobarómetro has the goal of providing a representative survey of Latin American public opinion over time and provides annual measures of attitudes toward democracy, civic culture, economic issues, gender issues, the environment, inequality, social capital, and trade policy.
Latinobarómetro covers Latin America from 1995-1998 and 2000-2006.
Click here to access Latinobarómetro.
